President of the North Macedonian Energy Regulatory Commission (RKE) Marko Bislimoski announced that the price of electricity for residential consumers will be increased by 9.48 % as of 1 January 2022, with the abolition of the cheaper day-tariff.
This is slightly lower than the expected 10 % increase, although many experts argued that the price would increase by more than 20 % in 2022.
In early November, the Government declared a 30 -days state of emergency in the energy sector. In addition to extremely high prices of electricity on exchanges, North Macedonia has serious problem with electricity supply due to frequent unavailability of its primary source of electricity – coal-fired thermal power plant Bitola, as well as low water levels at accumulations.
Therefore, in order to cover domestic demand, state-owned power utility ESM was forced to buy electricity through tender as prices ranging from 250 to 300 euros/MWh. One of the measures proposed by the Government is resuming production at oil-fired TPP Oslomej, which has been in cold reserve for some 12 years.
The state of emergency allows authorities to take various measures, including financial intervention, to provide additional supply of electricity in case of need.
The state of emergency was late extended until 9 June 2022.
